Title: Aria:
Left Luggage
Author: Geoff Nelder
Publisher: LL
Publications
Length:
305 pages
Sub-Genres: Sci-Fi, Aleins
BLURB:
ARIA: Left Luggage by Geoff Nelder contains a
shattering original premise. The concept of memory is examined as the part it
plays in making us who we are. From space is brought a suitcase-size object
that fundamentally affects memory with infectious amnesia. A few escape its
invidious consequences and attempt to secure a future. Dangerous, yet sometimes
humorous action takes us from orbit in the International Space Station to an
apparent sanctuary in a remote valley in Wales. Frantic desperation in a US town rips at our sensitivities, but relief
for a man when he finds his own refuge in Canada. In spite of or because of
the danger, lustful romances drive the main characters as much as survival
threatens their existence.
“Geoff
Nelder's Left Luggage has the right stuff. He makes us ask the most
important question in science fiction--the one about the true limits of
personal responsibility”. - Brad Linaweaver.
Jon
Courtenay Grimwood - “Geoff Nelder inhabits Science Fiction the
way other people inhabit their clothes.”
“ARIA
has an intriguing premise, and is written in a very accessible style.” – Mike
Resnick.
Wednesday 15 April 2015. Outside Dryden Space
Laboratories, Edwards Air Force Base, California.
Excerpt
The desert heat penetrated Jack’s shirt,
giving him a familiar unpleasant wet trickle down his back. Sunlight lasered
through holes in the bus shelter’s roof, making him shuffle.
Climbing into the homeward-bound bus he
helloed Greta, the driver, then winked at familiar travellers.
An unseasonable heat wave made the PVC seat
sticky. At least the journey was short. The bus’s climate-control had failed so
he had to share lungfuls of sweaty air.
Jack thought of his secret. None of the other
passengers had handled an alien artefact today. The first in the world and yet,
darn it, he wasn’t allowed to holler ‘it was me!’ at anyone.
Gazing out of the vibrating window at the
passing ochre desert, he caught a childhood aroma, one that he’d thought he’d
forgotten - butterscotch.
Jack massaged his forehead. Strange, he only
grew fuzzy heads like this with hangovers but he’d not swallowed beer for days.
It had to be dehydration.
The desert town of Rosamund slid into view so
Jack queued, straphanging, in the swaying aisle.
A few seats back, he caught Ken’s eye.“Hey Jack,
did something special happen at work to you today?”
A few passengers nearby looked up at Jack.
He distracted himself by looking through the
windows at the white-walled tract houses decelerating by. He and his colleagues
were not allowed to speak of work at the space lab, but that wasn’t it. He
gazed up at the rectangle of blue sky in the roof. He couldn’t remember what
he’d had for breakfast let alone the morning’s work schedule.
Ken persisted. “You okay, Jack?”
Hot though he was, Jack’s face heated more. A
special day. He’d done something unique – a first, but darn it, he couldn’t
remember what it was. His knees gave way and he flopped into a seat. His head
buzzed so loudly it must have annoyed the other passengers. He remembered
catching the bus to Edwards, but was that yesterday?
He muttered to himself. “Don’t be stupid. Come
on, man, what was in today’s newspaper?” Damn, he was losing his memory… or his
mind.
Then he caught a whiff of talcum powder and
gardenia. His grandma used to reek of it. Smells alluded him these days.
Something was messing with his brain.
Through wet eyes he noticed Greta looking back
down the aisle at him. “Jack, your stop, buddy.”
He hadn’t noticed the usual lurched halt. He
staggered up and patted Greta’s arm. Then he looked back at her as she rubbed
her head. Other passengers rubbed theirs.
As he dismounted, he spotted a newspaper
billboard announcing ‘Wednesday lottery results’. Hey, he thought it was
Tuesday. Was amnesia his problem? Maybe it could explain why he couldn’t
remember the morning’s events.
The heat from the sidewalk baked his feet
through cheap shoes as the bus grumbled away. He gazed after the bus
disappearing in its own dust cloud, and he thought of the bus driver,
what’s-her-name.
Her face had looked sallow, green. Maybe he’d
picked up a bug and infected her too. If her then maybe all her passengers
would get it, and new passengers and their kinfolk. That’s one hell of a messed
up world.
Interesting
facts about ARIA: Left Luggage
1.
Infectious
amnesia is an original concept in that it is an unknown medical condition and
has not been used before in novels or films.
2.
Research
help and support was emailed to Geoff from space! Astronaut Leroy Chiao
answered Geoff’s questions about the nature of the struts on the International
Space Station, and in 2012 wished him luck with the book.
3.
All
the places on Earth used in the book are real geographical locations, including
the ‘hidden’ valley – Anafon – in North Wales.
4.
The
cover art is designed by award-winning artist, Andy Bigwood.
5.
The
idea of infectious amnesia came to Geoff while he was riding a bicycle up a
steep Welsh hill.
BUY LINKS:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Geoff Nelder has a wife, two grown-up kids,
an increasing number of grandkids, and lives in rural England within an easy
cycle ride of the Welsh mountains. He taught Geography and Information Technology
for years until writing took over his life. Geoff is a competition
short-fiction judge, and a freelance editor.
Publications include several non-fiction
books on climate reflecting his other persona as a Fellow of the Royal
Meteorological Society; over 50 published short stories in various magazines
and anthologies; thriller, humour, science fiction, and fantasy novels.
2005: Humorous thriller Escaping
Reality. Republished 2012.
2008: Award-winning science fiction mystery
with hot-blooded heroine, Exit, Pursued
by a Bee.
2010: Another thriller received an Award
d’Or from an Arts Academy in the Netherlands. Its third edition will be
published in 2012, Hot Air.
2012: ARIA:
Left Luggage science fiction apocalypse.
An urban and historical magic realism
fantasy, Xaghra’s Revenge, is in the
hands of a literary agency.
Geoff Nelder
